Chandana’s ‘Story of Seetha’ ballet on Thursday

Globally renowned veteran dancer and guru Chandana Wickramasinghe will premiere his classic dance ballet titled ‘Story of Seetha’ at the Bishop’s College Auditorium on September 28 at 7 pm to coincide with his 50th birthday.

“I made this creation to coincide with my birthday and I am stunned by the demand and exposure it has got even prior to the premiere. This theme indeed has a global appeal, so we hope to showcase this to global audiences. We are discussing with the Dancer’s Guild of Calcutta to stage the next show there. But for the moment I am overwhelmed by the feedback and I am proud to say that this attempt will fill a huge vaccum in the country’s ballet sphere.

Unlike the golden ballet era during the time of Chitrasena Sir, followed by Ravibandu Sir and Channa Sir, this art has sadly taken a backseat despite efforts by Prof. Ariyaratne Kaluarachchi and Ravibandu Sir to breathe life into it.

But in recent times the art of ballet has been unable to reach crowd-pulling status. With the ‘Story of Seetha’, I am going to rewrite the history of our ballet, opening a new chapter,” Chandana told Impulse.

Peshala Manoj is handling the music direction in the Story of Seetha. Visharada Nanda Malini has contributed with the vocals for the words penned by Ratnasri Wijesinghe. Heenatigala Premadasa handles the stage décor, Hiran Wijesekara the costumes and Upali Ariyasiri the stage management.

75 students of Chandana will take part in the Kala Eli Mangallaya programme the following day (September 29) at the Bellanwila Raja Maha Viharaya premises.